Renters rights

There are quite a lot of rented properties in the area I live - some seem to have good landlords and have happily lived there for a few years - other landlords not so good. The trend now is the houses that are going up for sale seem to be turning into HMO's. Where I live they are mainly 2 bedroomed terraced houses - most of them have noticed saying room to let and there's now another on my street is ready -

fluttERBY123

Does anyone have an answer to this?Let's assume:-
There are x number of homes in the country. Some are owner occupied and some are rented. All are occupied. Big panic and the landlords sell up. Who to? If so who moves in? Someone who was previously renting? Renters have nowhere to rent? First time buyers can't afford a mortgage? My question is what happens to the homes renters sell and who do they sell to?¹

Good point. Maybe they remain in the rental area.
I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that all property is expensive - whether to rent or buy and many will be outpriced for ever.

Smileless2012

Not so great if you have a property in the UK that you rent out and work and live abroad, retire and want to live in the property you own in the UK.

Not so great if you're in a job that provides accommodation, and the property you bought for retirement has a tenant who you're unable to evict. Where do you live? I suppose you'll have to hope that there'll be sufficient rental accommodation available, not owned by disreputable landlords so you can rent.

“No fault” doesn’t mean that you can never reclaim your property. If you want to sell the property for eg then you can give notice. I reluctantly agreed to let out a house that my father and I own and the estate agent confirmed that there are a number of legitimate reasons to give notice to tenants.

It’s a minefield, we once let out some single occupancy rooms above a business.
It was a nightmare from beginning to end, we certainly never made any money, there was lots of damage. Because we were always available, I found myself as taxi driver, social worker, and all around shoulder to cry on.
They were for the most part nice enough people, but incapable of managing.
Eventually we worked with a local company housing their graduate workers on short term leases, that was fine, but really, we’d had enough.
The other side, my daughter and family once rented a house. The landlord had just the one property, and he treated them really well, anything going wrong, he dealt with immediately, even bought the children Christmas presents.
Good and bad on both sides. But I really think a landlord should be able to choose whether or not to allow pets.

I suspect that the vast majority of rogue landlords are those who don’t go through a letting agent, but let the property themselves, often ‘under the radar’ to illegal immigrants, cramming as many as possible into the property.
These landlords won’t be bothered by the new legislation as the immigrant tenants wouldn’t want to risk reporting their living conditions to the authorities for fear of being deported, (although of course under this government that would be highly unlikely.)

The vast majority of people like us who rent out property, go through an agent, abide by the rules, keep the house properly maintained and hope and pray for decent tenants who will respect the property and look after it.

I’ve had good and bad tenants in the past, when they leave usually you have to redecorate recarpet etc, not a problem if they’ve been there for a few years, some can trash the place in 6 months. The only one that got booted out was a Jehovas Witness who was growing cannabis in the bathroom - takes all kinds I guess.

I dont use an agent or advertise, I ask around there is always someone local looking it’s cheap at £500 pcm inclusive, no extras only council tax. Recently I’ve had single men, currently one has moved his girlfriend in that’s fine, when she is working they will move on no doubt.

There are far more disreputable tenants unfortunately, than landlords.

What about landlord's right over their own properties!!

We want to continue renting out our property. We have a nice family in it who have been there for several years.
However, if rules introduced by this government become too onerous, we might have forced to sell up.
It has to be a balancing act, looking after both parties, but I fear that too many landlords will feel it’s just not worth the hassle.

We had to issue a section 21 notice to tenants in 2020. It was my sister's house and she had been in a nursing home since a catastrophic stroke in 2015. My daughters had PoA but the nursing home fees were wiping out her savings and it was clear that we would have to sell the house. We gave him eighteen months' notice and explained why but he was in complete denial and would not look for anywhere else. It was all in the middle of the pandemic and lockdowns and we felt we could do nothing else to get him out. The nursing home went without being paid for over a year, we had to pay to get a judgement and he told many lies in his deposition. We got him out in July 21 and sold the house in February 22. She died in June 22. Not all "no fault evictions" are by vicious landlords of excellent tenants. I wonder what it would have been like under the new rules.

In Scotland where no fault evictions stopped a few years ago there are exemptions if the landlord or a family member is going to occupy the property. Same conditions may be adopted in England. Not sure I agree about pets though. If a house with garden perhaps but a flat for cat or dog no, and how many?

Maybe the Council can stop telling tenants that they should stay until the eviction notice or they will make themselves homeless where there are good reasons for the recovery of the house. Personally, I think that is immoral.

even people who are recognised as being homeless by the council are not given much help, unless they have young children or are disabled.
then they might get one room in a distant motel.
with children in the one room, leaning on the bed to do homework, and having to get 3 buses to school.
they can't change schools as they don't have a permanent address in the area . . .
other people sofa-surf where possible and spend time on all-night buses.
i know such a one. it is so dispiriting.

I don't agree with allowing pets at all . I have two 19 year old cats, and the damage they have done to my furniture and furnishings in the last two years is distressing, but it is my carpet, my curtains and my furniture. A landlord should not be expected to tolerate this, and my cats are house trained, sadly becoming senile.
Many pets are not house trained and some owners don't care. I have a relative who has four cats in a one bedroomed flat and understandably, she is threatened with eviction because of the dirt and the smell.

I'm not a fan of some of what I hear about the proposed renters reform. For example, the right to have pets isn't simple, imagine living next door or on the next floor to a large dog which is left alone all day and barks constantly- apart from the noise it's heartbreaking to see animals kept in unsuitable places... And it can't be an absolute right as some leases prohibit pets full stop! My son is trying to buy a flat where he can keep his dog and many blocks don't allow it, it's written into the lease, so presumably this will also prevent people who are renting a flat in the block from owning pets as the flat owner would be breaking the terms of their lease by allowing it. Furthermore, I've lived in a flat with a really awful neighbour, noise, drugs, threats and insults at people using the communal space. Making it even harder to get rid of tenants like that will cause even more distress to people living near antisocial renters 😕 the police won't want to know as they are already too busy so what can a 'good' landlord with tenants like this do? Up until now no reason needs to be given so how would you now evidence antisocial behaviour that's just falling below that which is a clear criminal offence? Too much regulation and people walk away from owning rental property. I guess it'll all be bought up by big companies now and people, like us, who spent a few years working abroad and let our homes while we were away will no longer be able to do so. I don't think being harder on landlords who let good property fairly will increase availability of homes for people needing to rent.

icanhandthemback

Maybe the Council can stop telling tenants that they should stay until the eviction notice or they will make themselves homeless where there are good reasons for the recovery of the house. Personally, I think that is immoral.

That’s the routine tenants who want social housing, have to have an eviction order, if the leave voluntary they don’t have a chance.
Like it or not that’s the way it is.

My DHs job moved to the other side of England so we rented our house and rented a house in Kent. 6 months later our landlord informed us he was going bankrupt and the house was being repossessed. We bought a house in Kent for 2 years and then sold it. Moved back to our old house and fortunately our short term tenants had now moved out. We were fortunate to put our home on a 6month rolling tenancy with an agent.
Will this new law stop all short term tenancy agreements?

Very sadly when I was left a property by a relative, I was about to rent it out ...for some income, and also to give someone a home ...but SADLY when I looked in depth at doing so, no way ...a Landlord would seem to have NO rights whatsoever ....if you die, and the house has to be sold, the tenant can refuse to move out ....no fault evictions are to banned, so what if the landlord NEEDS the house back and has to sell it ...say, for care home fees, etc..... so difficult !

There is a straigh forward answer to the problem of banning no fault evictions. Only let your property by the year(or more if you wish). The tenant then has to leave aat the end of the year, or whatever and cannot, even now be evicted, not even with Section 23 (no fault) eveiction.

Why do i say this with such conviction,? DD is buying a house (she hopes) , which is currently tenanted. When the house cam on the market the seller didn't mention the tenant, but all be came clear at a viewing. They then said they would issue a No Fault eviction notice, then found they couldn't because the tenant has a contract with a fixed end date of February 2025. and No Fault eviction doesn't apply when there is rental contract with a fixed end date.

DD is hanging on as this is a 'one and only' house for her.

M0nica

There is a straigh forward answer to the problem of banning no fault evictions. Only let your property by the year(or more if you wish). The tenant then has to leave aat the end of the year, or whatever and cannot, even now be evicted, not even with Section 23 (no fault) eveiction.

Why do i say this with such conviction,? DD is buying a house (she hopes) , which is currently tenanted. When the house cam on the market the seller didn't mention the tenant, but all be came clear at a viewing. They then said they would issue a No Fault eviction notice, then found they couldn't because the tenant has a contract with a fixed end date of February 2025. and No Fault eviction doesn't apply when there is rental contract with a fixed end date.

DD is hanging on as this is a 'one and only' house for her.

When no fault evictions are introduced there will be no set term leases.

My friend had a small flat she rented out to supplement her pension, she got a mortgage on it. Within a couple of years a tenant had sublet the flat to a family she didn’t know who changed the locks. They didn’t pay the rent because of course they were paying the person who sublet it to them. A long legal battle began and eventually she was able to evict the tenants with the help of the police. The flat had been totally trashed but seeing as my friend couldn’t afford the mortgage repayments the flat was repossessed so it didn’t even belong to her anymore.
Penalising all landlords is too broad a stroke and will result in landlords selling up and subsequently an even more acute shortage of housing.
My friend lost everything. We need to have some balance here.

OldFrill I thought we already had no fault evictions.

MOnica
My daughter is in the same situation. The tenants have been to court twice now but for some unknown reason the paperwork has been at fault each time. Mmmm 🤷‍♀️

Babs03
We only had 2 sets of tenants who ripped us off. One couple didn’t pay a penny after moving in.
The second set were hot bedding with their co- workers.
Both times we sorted it out ourselves.
Fortunately the properties were mortgage free.

I rented out once, never again, got work in another part of the country, let out my home. All was OK rent wise, all done via an agent. As soon as I wanted to get the house back, 3 months notice, rent stopped being paid, when they eventually left, the kitchen was wrecked, carpets disgusting. Agents took all their money from his deposit leaving me short, and landlords insurance was well lacking in paying out any funds. . So never ever again.

I rented a flat out for 5 years and the nearest I got to disaster was two young Irish lads, fresh from home and university, who had never lefted a finger for themselves as 'mammy' nurtured them like little princes. They did no damage deliberately, but did quite a bit because they were so domestically gormless. They did not get their deposits back.